Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:19-20
“What beautiful business! What a divine market! You purchase with money something incorruptible, and you give the perishing things of this world in exchange for heavenly things! Set sail, O Rich Man, for this festal assembly, if you are wise. And if it is necessary, go around the whole earth without considering dangers or toils, that here you might purchase a heavenly kingdom.”
Clement of Alexandria (150-215) in Quis dives salvetur (The Rich Man’s Salvation) 32 in Alms: Charity, Reward, and Atonement in Early Christianity by David J. Downs (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016) 185.
Today I depart for Egypt, though I will not exactly set sail. I fly from Denver to Houston to Frankfurt to Cairo. Thanks for your prayers for strength to face whatever awaits me and for the Spirit to work powerfully through my service.
In antiquity, much like today, people with wealth loved to travel and shop. Emporiums and markets in many cities achieved great fame. People would travel many miles to visit temples and to go shopping to purchase a variety of wares.
Clement calls the rich to a different market, a divine market. He beckons them to use wealth to purchase the incorruptible. What about you? What will you do? Will you be wise? If so it will require you to spend differently than your wealthy friends.
This echoes the explicit instructions of Jesus to store money in heaven rather than on earth. Will you prepare for the festal assembly in eternity? I hope and pray you chose wisely. You are not making a sacrifice, but rather the smartest investment on the planet.